Natural deodorant recipes

I have become slightly obsessed with my coconut oil since purchasing it. I never expected something natural to work much better than a store-bought product containing many ingredients.

I'm now searching for deodorants, soaps, and shampoos to add to my beauty-routine collection.

Here are two recipes for making natural deodorant. With both, you can add essential oils for a scent. These deodorants will not prevent sweating but will kill the odour-causing bacteria.

Coconut oil
2 parts baking soda
2 parts starch (arrow root, corn starch etc)
3 parts coconut oil

Vodka
1 part vodka
1 part water (distilled)

The coconut oil recipe will be solid at room temperature, so you may want to make small "bars", and the vodka recipe is a liquid which you may want to store in a jar and dip a cotton ball into to apply.

Down-shifting

I've just started reading a new blog - Notes from the Frugal Trenches, amoungst others from Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op blog.  I was reading about "downshifting", as the thought of it pretty much dominates my mind atm.  I thought I'd just reflect on my own downshifting journey over the past few years.

(YA = years ago, MA = months ago, ie in the past from where I am now).  I've tried for chronological order;

10YA - Lived on a 33ft yacht for about a year.  Realised how many more stars there are in the night sky away from cities, pollution, lights etc.  Got nostalgic for the days when I used to be able to see the Milky Way from my suburban home as a child.  Realised I hadn't seen many stars at all in the city for years.  Quite a shock.

9YA - Did my Army preventive medicine (environmental health) training living on-base for a few months out in the sticks.  Really enjoyed my lifestyle there and how good I felt, particularly my afternoon 5km run around the base through the trees on a dirt track and some grass, the fresh air, and the lack of traffic.  Decided at this time I wanted to move out of the city but would still want a good career, which I didn't have on the yacht.  Looked at the Army full-time, decided on becoming a paramedic.

7YA - Began becoming a paramedic.  This included some clinical placements in rural locations which I really enjoyed.  Started narrowing down where I would want to move to. 

4YA - Got my first full-time ALS paramedic job in a rural city.  Had quite a culture shock as my normal forms of entertainment were either not available at all, not readily available, or not of the same standard.  At that time these were fancy dinners at restaurants, cocktail bars, Gold Class cinemas, and live shows/gigs, as well as a membership at a nice fancy gym with a eucalyptus steam room and aromatherapy room to name just a few.

3YA - Transferred my job and my life to a small rural town.  Another culture shock again. No shops except the op-shop and a small supermarket which didn't contain any fancy products. Searched the supermarket shelves and couldn't find rice milk or tofu (they are now available). No free-range chicken, no fresh organic food.  No takeaway food and the one and only restaurant at the pub was terrible.  No gym at all.  And my roster involved being on-call a lot.  Had to begin shopping on-line which helped me decide what I really wanted and less impulse (still some impulse buying).  Had to learn how to cook and how to use more staple ingredients. Bought a Nintendo Wii and set-up home gym and bought Tracy Anderson workout DVDs.  Go for an occasional run in the fresh air around the paddocks - reminds me of the good ol' times on the Army base.

1.5YA - Bought my house so I could finally do things like install solar panels, put in a vege patch, plant some fruit trees, and get my non-existent gardens in existence.  Already had some nifty devices like those standby power switches.  Water tank already insitu.  Grey-water hose from washing machine to vege patch in place since renting as we were ina serious drought then.

8MA - Decided I was going to go frugal. Rearranged my budget as much as possible (with more help from My Budget with who I have been with for a few years now). Reduced as much as possible.  Shopped around for cheapest insurance, internet, phone etc.  Simplified.  Convinced myself to only travel overseas once per year instead of up to 4 times at one stage!

6MA - Found myself the perfect house-mate to take up some of the ridiculously large amount of space I have in my house and to contribute rent.

4MA - Started reducing the amount of overtime I work.  Enjoy my days off.

2MA - Finally getting my feed-in sorted for my solar (so the electricity company buys-back any excess I generate thoughout the day).

1MA - Started seriously looking at rural acreage for my (hopefully) final transition to as rural as I want to go.  Planning to rent my rural township house out (I wont sell it as I need a city or town house as an asset as my acreage house will firstly be my forever-home so I can freely design and do with it what I wish without worrying about resale, and secondly it will not increase in capital as dramatically as my township house, and thirdly my plan is to have a number of small-mortgage houses with people renting them off me and to never have a large mortgage to which I am chained to as per the advice from a few of the older people I'm friends with).  Am still currently in the planning phase or the acreage house.  Projected period of planning is 12 months, projected period of construction/moving is another 12-24 months after that. V. excited.

Recently - Bought my first few shares! They were in a co-operative wind farm!  V. cool.  Hoping to receive my first few small dividends in the next year.  Joining some local sustainability groups.

So now I've started a new post category - the "simple life" which I hope share the more time I intend to spend on my down-shifted, frugal, green, simple life. 

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I'm hoping to still keep up with modernity, though.  I love technology and I have no intention on rejecting modern life and living like the colonials.  I'm just trying to cultivate that part in my bio that says "find the time to stop and smell the roses....."

Money (and other things I like)

I'm getting quite used to the idea of going to Samoa for a year to do my internship, although I will definitely do the USMLE.  One thing, though, well two things that are kind of the same thing - finances.  The money I need to finish my clinical rotation, and the financial set-up I need at home to go and earn <not enough to pay my mortgage back home>. 

So anyway, it always feels awkward talking about money but it's a really important subject.  I think the whole GFC drew a spotlight onto our spending habits.  It's now becoming cool to be frugal.  I'm not cool.

For me saving money has always fallen in the same heap as dieting - good intentions, great plans, but doesn't last very long and only serves to make me feel (more) like a failure. 

I'm setting myself some goals - and I think they are more "real" if I put them here on my blog so here goes;

• Pay off my mortgage and any other remaining debts by the time I'm 40

Ok, so it was really only one goal.

I'd also like a sustainable house.  I'm kinda in the process of making it happen right now.  My current house is in my township and I want to go more rural onto acreage.  That's where I want to live sustainable and off-the-grid.  I can't buy the land yet until I get my first doctor job in Australia.  But I can plan/save/research for ideas.

• geothermal heating/cooling

My dearest friend Dr Donald Payne PhD is a director Direct Energy where they are really leading the way with this technology in Australia.  In a basic nutshell, you drill into the ground where the temperature remains relatively constant all year round, then the air you use to heat/cool your home is cycled through the underground pipes where they adjust to the underground temperature (for example 22oC in Summer) and then you use this air which you only have to cool by 2oC to cool your home for thus using much less energy.

• wind turbines

Harnessing wind for residential power is one of the best ways to generate energy in areas that don't have great sun all year round but are not in built-up areas; like where I live/want to live.  This things go nuts on what might seem like a still day down at ground level, but up there (20m) it's windy!

• solar power and hot water heating

I think this category almost speaks for itself.  I like the almost "passive" use of coiled black pipes on your roof to get some initial warmth, and then using a solar hot water system.  I have solar power on my current home but I do not store the excess power in batteries at the moment because I cannot afford them. 

Some others are;

• self-composting toilet
• vegetable garden
• rainwater tanks
• bore water
• grey-water/black-water systems
• other energy saving devices (I have some already) including the remote switches to turn off standby mode on appliances
• top-opening fridge

Well, that is all I have off the top of my head for now.

Op-shopping and my life update

This post is so massive it needs sub-headings.....(I need to lay off the RedBull....)

Op-shops, animal welfare, and the environment
So I've been getting into op-shops lately (that's "opportunity" shop which is like a charity or thrift store for all you foreigners).  I was so stoked today to find a long black down-filled jacket for $3.50!  At first I wanted to get a North Face one for over $500AUD.  Then I was horrified to learn they are only $250 in the US and I couldn't get a new one online and sent to me.  I saw some on ebay a little cheaper - around $200-250.  Then my friend just got back from Tibet and she scored one for about $30AUD.

I got a good new silk-blend sleeping bag liner from ebay for $12, so even if I have to hire a sleeping bag I will feel ok in my liner.  I'd love to buy a good -20oC one though cause I get so cold and I want to do some camping this Summer - I already have a light one and a medium one, so a heavy one would be great (I know -20oC sound too wam for Summer, but for me it's a real comfort knowing I wont be too cold).  I also need a new swag, but that's for another adventure.

Other things - I also picked up a pair of cargos, a short skirt and short shorts (for over legging), and a longer, flowy skirt for my modesty especially in Nepal - all were less than $3.50 each.  Apart from saving money, time, and recycling (well, reusing I suppose, but anyway...), I'm mainly most happy about the down jacket because I've been battling a moral dilemma bout it.  I normally avoid leather, silk, and sheep skin, and I only eat meat once a day - and only free range chicken, beef once a week, and some seafood (mainly fish and mainly the ones which aren't being over-fished which you can find a guide here for Aussies, and here for worldwide), avoid dairy, I only get pets from the pound etc etc.  I try and consider the animals in my choices.  I'd love to be vegan but it's really impractical and quite difficult to make sure you diet is full of the essential amino acids and omega-3s etc.  Anyway, I am happy I could at least get a recycled down jacket - those little geese didn't give up their bodies for nothing.

My upcoming trip
So my trip is finally coming together.  It looks like I have most things if not everything already.  I hope to tread lightly as possible and eat locally.  Mainly backpacking so the souveniers will have to be minimal and thoughtfully chosen.  My last leg of the journey is thorugh Bhutan so I;m hoping to pick up a traditional dress.  Through Tibet I wouldn't mind some prayer flags, althogh you can get them here in Australia quite easily.  Those spinney prayer thingys (I just Googled it - they are called hand prayer wheels) will be good too.

Medicine
Now, study.  I have requested that OUM transfers me into the MD program.  I am currently in the MBBS, designed for Aussies and Kiwi following the traditional Commonwealth model.  The difference is only a matter of a few weeks extra clinical placements in which I would do a sub-internship, hopefully in the US and hopefully in emergency, family, or paediatric medicine.  However, recently OUM has decided to examine MD students on the basic sciences separately as they were finding students were having difficulties in the USMLEs in these areas.  So, seeing as I want to sit the USMLEs, I asked to go into the MD stream which is apparently more difficult, and is definitely more expensive.  Some people would avoid these two things like the plague.  Not me!

Personally, I feel I am most lacking in the basic sciences so I kind of like the idea of being pushed more in this area.

I had been considering residency in the US since the get-go, and with recent developments in Australia it seems like IMGs are going to have a hard time getting internships.  I am also fond of the idea of internship in Samoa, however I didn't realise until yesterday that the wage for interns is only AUD$15000pa!  That's less than 10% of what I earn now.  It's really only a problem in I have a mortgage that needs contributing to, or other Australia-life commitments.  At least it is a good incentive to get my finances well-and-truely in order by then.  So, that new car I was thinking about getting is not going to be got.

I am friends on Facebook with an American OUM student and she told me the US OUM grads have been really successful at gaining residency.  I must ask her in which discipline.  The OUM curriculum advisor told me the sub-internship clerkship is really important for getting one's foot int the door for matching into their residency programs.  I think I will be good at this after going through the paramedic clinical placements and then graduate program - be super-dooper friendly, seem intelligent and thoughtful and competent but not over confident, work your butt off, be the first to arrive and the last to leave, have no other life outside of the placement/grad work, offer people drinks and food and make their life easier not harder, and most importantly, did I mention food?

Masters
Yep, so I'm supposed to be finishing my assignment right now (I'm at work again) which is why I drank the RedBull but instead I sewed buttons and holes up on my new opshop purchases, made a healthy lunch (to try and prepare myself for the diet of lentils coming up), discussed MoH things with my sister, and chatted to my work partner for today who is an IT guru about using my mobile phone as wifi for my laptop at work (we only have one PC and it can be inconvenient) and using wifi instead of internet roaming data stream while overseas.  Whew.  Oh, and blogging.

Ok must finish this essay.  I've done 1100 words out of 2500 and it's due in 2 days.  Wish me luck!

Home again

I made it back home yesterday afternoon.  Spent most of the day traveling back, then the evening just getting everything sorted out.

The flight was good - it's not very long- but I did have some dramas going through security as I bought 3 pairs of big metal hoop earrings and they kept trying to tell me I had a big pair of scissors in my handbag.  Ugh.  At least it was my handbag and not my carry-on which would have taken a lot longer to convince them.  They seemed pretty sure that I had scissors.

I got home to find my garage had been flooded in the big storm, which was the tail-end of Cyclone Yasi.  It's amazing to think a cyclone can affect the weather more than 2000km away.  It had already drained out and there wasn't much it damaged, but I need to closer inspect my golf bag.  Some of my garden got washed away too, but I'm glad it didn't come up just another few centimetres otherwise it would have been in my front door!  My house it located higher than the town, which is 1000m above sea level, so I am assuming that the water was from the downpour itself, and not being washed down from anywhere else.

So,I do think this is due to climate change, but I didn't think we'd see weather as extreme as this for a few more decades.  Goes to show, that in a battle between humans and Mother Earth, we're going to lose.